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LIBRARY OF CONGRIiSS. t 

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:| UNITED STATES OF AMRlCA. | 



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OUR UNITY AS A NATION. 



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From the ''New Englander" for January, 1862. 



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98 Our Unity as a Nation. , \ I ** [Jan., 



Article VIII.— OUR UNITY AS A XATIOX. 

Do we fully realize all that is expressed bj these simple 
words? Do we even now comprehend all that we shall lose 
if this unity shall pass aM'ay definitely and beyond the hope 
of recall ? We have been a great, proud people, springing 
into existence with almost magical rapidity ; able to take our 
place among the nations of the world, and make our flag 
respected wherever it might wave. With an ever-expanding 
territory ; with an ever-increasing commerce ; possessing in 
the bosom of our own land all varieties of climate; and 
accustomed to look on the peace and prosperity of our country 
as things immutable ; how will it please us to have the boun- 
darj^ of the cluster of States remaining in tlie Union cut 
down to the Pennsylvania line 'I For, in tlie event of tiie final 
recognition of the Sonthern Confederacy, it would not be 
easy to hold back from them Maryland and Delaware. How 
shall we endure the loss of prestige which will reduce ns to 
a second rate power ? Shall we be pleased to have the loyal 
States of Kentucky, and Kansas, and the divided State of 
Missouri, dragged from ns by force, or, if they succeed in 
remaining in the Union, exposed to the continual attacks of 
the surrounding rebel States % 

In fine, how shall we, of the Northern and Eastern States, 
exist, separated by only an imaginary line, from a people who 
openly profess hatred and contempt for our characteristics and 
onr institutions ; and wliose ambition will canse their interests 
to clash with ours at every moment ? For we should be wrong 
to imagine tliat, after a formal recognition of their separate 
existence as a nation, our relations would assume an amicable 
form ! A thousand motives for discord would arise continu- 
ally ; and our dissensions and wars would be interminable. 
Those who know the spirit of the South can never be the 
victims of such an illusion. So completely has slavery under- 
mined the tendency of our institutions, that the slave States, 
to-day, are far more inclined to feudalism than to republican- 



1862.] Our Unity as a JVation. 99 

ism. With tliis retrograde inoveineiit has grown np the spirit 
of antagonism to ourseh^es ; and it may be asserted, with all 
trutJi and justice, that so indifferent have these people become 
to the lionor of the American name, so false to the heritage of 
their lathers, that thev would gladly accept the protectorate of 
any foreign power. In contemplating this disloyalty, not to a 
Government hut to their nationalitij, we pause and ask in 
amazement, what could have produced such a change ? What 
could thus have perverted the hearts and minds of a portion 
of our countrymen ? 

We are in the midst of the great crisis of our national 
history. We are passing through an epoch of transition ; such 
epochs as are recorded in the annals of all nations, and from 
which they never emerge as they have entered them. Every 
event of this kind has an end to work out ; a mission to accom- 
plish ; and takes its origin in a great underlying cause, which 
is but too apt to escape for a long time general recognition. 
Thus, if we were to ask what was the original cause of the 
present revolt of certain States, and their war upon the Union, 
very many would reply, "Abolitionism is the cause;" and 
yet, in this, how greatly would they err, for Slavery, and not 
Abolitionism, is the basis and motive power of this rebellion. 

Without entering into the merits or demerits of the institu- 
tion, it is enough to state that it is one which the unani- 
mous voice of civilized humanity is every day more and more 
loudly condemning. The Southern States, at the connnence- 
ment of our career as a nation, were fully aware that slavery 
was an evil, and a clog on the progress of any people where it 
exists. They acknowledged this freely then ; urging in exten- 
uation that they had been hampered with the institution, and 
that it had not been established among them by any will of 
their own. 

AVe find the following in Winterbotham's Yiew of the 
American United States, published in 1795. It shows conclu- 
sively how greatly the spirit of Southern slave-holders has 
changed since that date. 

"In countries where slavery is encouraged, the ideas of the people are, in 
general, of a peculiar cast ; the soul often becomes dark and narrow, and assumes 



100 Our Unity as a Nation. [Jan., 

a tone of savage brutality. Such, at this day, are the inhabitants of Barbary 
and the West Indies. But, thank G-od ! nothing like this has yet disgraced an 
American State. We may look for it in Carolina, but we shall be disappointed. 
The most elevated and liberal Carolinians ahhor slavery; they rcill not delnde 
themselves by attempting to vindicate it ; he who would encourage it, abstracted 
from the idea of bare necessity", (there can be no necessity of acknowledged 
wrong), is not a man, he is a brute in human form. For, ' disguise thyself as 
thotv wilt, slavery, still thou art a bitter draught !' It is interest, louder than 
the voice of reason, which alone exclaims in thy favor." 

Humility, however, though a Christian virtue, is not a 
general characteristic of human nature, and certainly not of 
the races that formed the strata of the Southern population, 
and they soon wearied of apologizing for an institution which 
they imagined to be for their interest to perpetuate. Self-suffi- 
ciency and arrogance succeeded ; for when we have once re- 
solved on pursuing the wro7ig, it is far easier to assert that 
we are right than to prove it. 

Meanwhile, the Free States, by the same obedience to a 
natural law, had moved in exactly the opposite direction. 
From indifference they had passed to a comprehension of the 
moral evil of slavery, and this, of course, engendered a tacit, 
if not avowed dislike and condemnation of it. However, to a 
large party in these States, this spirit was obnoxious. They 
would have stopped the progressive movement of mind, and 
rolled back the popular sentiment. "Better to leave these 
things alone," was the cry. True, it might have been better, 
according to this way of reasoning, if there had never been 
a Luther, or a French revolution, or an uprising of our own 
people against oppression ; but it was not in the God-ordained 
progress of humanity that these things should fail to be at 
their proper time. 

Then came the aggressive and exacting spirit of the slave 
power, growing in strength and audacity every day ; not con- 
tent to be and remain what it was, but, following the l)ent of 
despotism everywhere, desirous of engrossing all power, and 
becoming the ruling element of the country. 

The growth of opposition to this spirit in the South was 
very slow of development in the Nortli. It was continually 
held in check by the law-and-order-loving character of the 



1862.] 0%ir Unity as a Nation. 101 

people ; by their appreciation of tlie raagnitiule and import- 
ance of the question, and tlie immense complication of difficul- 
ties that lay in the way of its solution. It is owing to these 
causes that we have for years been striving to reconcile the 
two antagonistic systems, which have for ages agitated the 
world. We have claimed to believe in freedom ; we have 
made it our boast that we have proved before the face of the 
world, despite the incredulity and sneering comments of the 
upholders of other forms of government, that a people are 
capable of ruling themselves in liberty and harmony ; and yet 
here, in the very midst of a nation proud of their freedom and 
enlightenment, has existed, and exists, a relic of the darkest 
and most absolute despotism. "We have believed that we 
might permit a system at variance with everything around it; 
an anomaly which has been the creator of anomalies, such as 
the existence of a Democratic pro-slavery party. We have 
striven to wrest harmony from these discordant elements, and 
we have persisted in refusing to believe that from the Avorking 
out of a natural law, as inevitable, and as much beyond our 
control as the great ocean-tides, the two systems diverged from 
the outset, and that no point of contact, no sympathy, no 
bond in common was in the nature of things possible. 

We do not as a people realize this yet. A dim conscious- 
ness is dawning in many new quarters, but, in general, though 
we know that we are sundered, and that our nationality is 
imperiled, we do not yet comprehend that this is the cause of 
the present convulsed state of our country. 

De Tocqueville long ago perceived in the South elements 
dangerous to the Union. He says : — 

" Of all the Americans the Southerners should most desire the Union, for they 
alone of all the rest -would suffer in being abandoned to themselves ; and yet they 
are the only ones who threaten the existence of the Union." 

ITe doubted, too, the power of the Federal Government to 
maintain itself in case a dissolution should be attempted; but 
he did not count on the love of country that springs up insen- 
sibly and inevitably in the heart ; nor on the great necessity of 
our oneness as a people, which now, for the first time during 
our existence as a nation, we have been aroused to feel. 



^^^ Our Unity as a Nation. [J-an., 

The mother country is putting fortli ]ier mightiest energies to 
protect the birtliright of her children; and is it not our duty 
to ponder well on the cause that is arming brother's hand 
against brother; and which has long since destroyed all the 
ties that naturally bind together the people of one country one 
religion, one language ? 

There is a vague Idea abroad that this rebellion once crushed 
we shall return to our previous condition; but this is impossi- 
ble. Neither nations nor individuals ever pass through a great 
stirring experience and remain what tliey were. 

Had it been possible for things to remain in statu quo ; had 
the s ave-power been less exacting, or the spirit of opposition 
to It less strong in the free States, we might have been better 
pleased to live on tranquilly, leaving the great inevitable con- 
test to our posterity; but this could not be; and if not possible 
m the past, still less will it be so in the future. The step of a 
decided rupture was a thing that needed years of preparation • 
Jiereafter it will l)e but a continuation of an old feud ever in- 
creasing m bitterness and rancor. While then these 'moment- 
ous events are passing, it becomes us, the People, to be equal 
to the emergency, and not strive by lagging behind to detain 
the irrepressible course of events. 

Suppose that we succeed with great loss, and infinite suffer- 
mg and toil, in quelling this rebellion, leaving the institution 
ot slavery intact, what shall we have gained ? The South will 
have suffered a double humiliation ;— that of a defeat, and the 
old consciousness that they possess an institution tli'at in the 
opinion of the free States is sucli an evil and shame tliat its 
extension cannot be permitted. Even should there be a Union 
party at the South, strong enough to reconstruct the Union on 
Its old basis, will there be there men wise and just and moder- 
ate enough to tamely accept tliis position, which it must be 
admitted is humiliating, and continue to love the Union? Is 
It logical to believe that a people, who on this verv ground 
have revolted, witliout awaiting actual grounds for complaint 
against the Federal Government, will so entirely change in 
views, and even in nature, as to subsequently acquiesce willingly 
HI the measures wliich even in theory provoked their revest? 



1862.] 0%Lr Unity as a Nation. 103 

If not, if tlie spirit of revolt still live, shall Ave treat these 
States as conquered provinces, and establish a military despot- 
ism over them? Wonld not such a course be entirely incon- 
gruous with the nature of our Government, and revolting to 
the liberal sentiments of our people ? And if not this, what 
then? Shall we at last, after having won the victory with 
such struggle and self-sacrifice, consent to the independence of 
these States, that is to say, to the dismemberment of our coun- 
try? "We shall be obliged finally to look these questions 
frankly in the face ; why not do so now ? AVhy not recognize 
and acknowledge at once the fact that until the cause of our 
dissensions is removed, our harmonious unity as a people 'is an 
impossihility ? " Let the caluse be removed !" the answer 
comes back. " Let us of the free States silence the Abolition 
pulpit and press. Cease to meddle with the institutions of the 
South and we shall have unity!" We say " yes," most cor- 
dially. Let us be consistent. If we will not do one thing let 
us do the other. Silence the pulpit and the press ; turn back 
the course of public opinion ; throw open the territories to 
slavery ; not only this, let the master take his slaves where he 
will, North, East or West, and let them be recognized every- 
where as his property, and then we shall have unity ; the unity 
of retrogression and despotism it is true, but better even that 
than the vain eftbrt to bind together elements that have no 
aftinity ! 

That the existence of slavery in our country has ever been 
considered by all minds as an element of danger to our peace 
and prosperit}'^ as a nation is demonstrated by the words of all 
who have ever written on the subject. I)e Tocqueville says : 

'' The most formidable of all the ills which threaten the future existence of the 
United States arises from the presence of a black population upon its territory ; 
and in contemplating the causes of the present embarrassments, or of the future 
dangers of the United States, the observer is invariably led to consider this as a 
primary fact." 

And this connnent was made long since, before the slave 
power had commenced its exactions, before it had ventured to 
assert in the face of Christianity and civilization that slavery 
is a God-appointed institution, alike beneficial to master and 



104 Our Unity as a Nation. [Jan., 

slave, and consequently to be propagated as mncli as possible : 
before the springing np of the irrepressible antagonism in the 
free States which such an attitude could not fail to engender : in 
a word, before it became a question of abject submission to 
tyrannical exaction, or the utter demolition of the system 
which produced such results. 

This is absolutely and unavoidably the issue. We know 
that every step of human progress has been accomplished by 
these terrible upheavings, this fierce battle between the Old 
and the New : the efforts of progressive humanity to cast off 
one by one, as they discover them, the clinging errors of a 
darker period, and emerge into the brightness of a newer day. 
It is requisite then that the People should have a distinct and 
comprehensive conception of the purpose, the idea for which 
they are struggling, suffering and sacrificing ; and unless they 
make of this idea their standard, morally convinced of its ho- 
liness, its necessity, and are willing to cast aside the errors and 
prejudices that oppose it, and render vain all their efforts, a 
contest like this is but a wanton destruction of human life, and 
a wanton waste of the products of human toil. 

And it seems as though Providence itself had j^resented the 
occasion for the solution of the problem which has so long 
baffled the wisest statesmen of our nation. AV^e have long 
known that slavery is an evil; it is an incubus on the nation ; 
but hoio should we get rid of it ? This has been our dilemma 
hitherto. Let the revolted States be forced to return to their 
allegiance, and we shall be, with regard to this question, in 
exactly the same position as before. The Federal Government 
will no longer have the right to resort to measures legitimated 
by revolutionary exigencies, and the opportunity for action 
will have been lost until a new revolt shall again present it. 
This is the first time in our national history that the opportu- 
nity luis offered itself for emancipating the slaves, not on the 
Abolition 2)Tinciple, for this, however just in the abstract, be- 
comes unjust in })ractice, but simply in accordance with the 
law of confiscation according to the code of all civilized nations 
under similar circumstances. And it is this fact that makes 
this opportunity so particularly favorable, and marks this as 



1862.] Our Unity as a Nation. 105 

tlie preeminently liapp.y epoch for the accomplishment of this 
purpose. Southern property is vested almost wholly in slaves, 
and if these are to be excepted from the law of confiscation, 
very little will be left to come under it. If the whole matter 
is made to turn on the point that only property used in the 
prosecution of the rebellion can be lawfully confiscated, no 
species of property is so completely and conclusively covered 
by this clause as the slaves. In tilling a rebel master's fields, 
in attending to his house, in obeying his orders, they are min- 
istering to the maintenance of the originators of the rebellion, 
without which, of course, it never could have existed. If the 
master need money for the furtherance of his plans he sells his 
negroes. It is diflicult to conceive in what better way prop- 
erty could be employed in the fm'therance of rebellion ; for if 
we insist on reducing the formula to its literal sense, the only 
actual, material property used directly in the war, is the gen- 
eral equipage of officers and men. The slave owner claims his 
slaves as his property, in which he has invested so many thou- 
sands of dollars. We simply take him on his own ground in 
confiscating them to the Government, which, representing the 
Republican principle, can make no use of money vested in hu- 
man beings, and consequently emancipates them. This is the 
simple and feasible solution of the great problem ; the short 
path that will lead us outside the stupendous wall that has so 
long hemmed in slavery. 

But here a very natural inquiry presents itself, what is to 
become of these four millions of blacks suddenly loosened from 
bondage ? Are we to intermingle with them, and acknowledge 
them as equals ? People are alarmed at such a prospect ; and 
they would be justly so Avere there any grounds for such fears. 
Nothing is more improbable, more impossible., we might say, 
than the general amalgamation of the white and black races ; 
and nothing more opposed to the natural order of things than 
the recognition on terms of equality of a race universally con- 
ceded to be inferior, and in addition to this just emerged from 
the degrading position of slavery. There exists in the white 
race an instinctive and insurmountable aversion to the black. 
Apart from the contempt with which we naturally view a race 



106 Our Unity as a Nation. [Jan., 

condemned to servitude by their lack of capacity, there is 
something repulsive to us in the physique of the black ; and 
those who have not been familiarized by the habit of contact 
shrink involuntarily from their touch as though they belonged 
to a different species. Indeed, if we are to base an opinion on 
the most marked indications of nature, we should say that the 
two races were not intended to live together. The white can- 
not exist for any length of time on the native soil of the Afri- 
can ; and his health is enfeebled and his life shortened in the 
tropical regions which most nearly approximate to the former's 
natal latitude. All the tastes, habits and inclinations of the 
negro are purely material suited to the indolence of the physi- 
cal life of the tropics, where the energy and enterprise of the 
white find no adequate field. In fine, the direct antagonism of 
the two races on every conceivable point of comparison proves 
conclusively that the Creator, in placing the black on a point 
so remote from the rest of the world, and so unsuited for the 
habitation of any other people ; and in denying them all mi- 
gratory instincts, intended them to be a race apart, for what pur- 
pose the developments of the inscrutable future can alone reveal. 
This then, the great natural difference, and the repugnance 
growing out of it, is the impassible barrier to amalgamation. 
Moreover, as an additional guarantee, we have the fact that the 
prejudices of caste, even among our own race, and with the 
liberal ideas engendered by a Republican Government, are 
only eradicated with the greatest difficulty, and by impercept- 
ible degrees. The man or woman who has been our servant 
can never be acknowledged by us in the interior of our hearts 
as an entire equal ; and even their posterity sufter, in some 
degree, in our estimation. The distinctions of education and 
custom endure long after the laws which represented them have 
been abolished. The position of social inferior, provided it bo 
not accompanied by the denial of equal rights before the law, 
is always quietly and contentedly accepted ; for people gener- 
ally have an instinctive, unreasoned, perhaps unconfessed, con- 
sciousness that social distinctions arise from the working out of 
a law inherent in humanity. There never was but one attempt 
to bring all classes to the same level, and that was a phrenzy 



1862.] Ou7' Unity as a Nation. 107 

and a failure. Arguing from this fact, it does not seem at all 
probable that the suddenly freed slaves wonld make the absurd 
demand to be considered the eqnals of their former masters, or 
peril their newly acquired liberty in the vain effort to attain 
any such impossible equality. In this very connection De 
Tocqueville says : — 

" Thus it is in the United States, that the prejudice -which repels the negroes 
seems to increase in proportion as they are emancipated, and inequality is sanc- 
tioned by the manners, while it is effaced from the laws of the country. But if 
the relative position of the two races which inhabit the United States is such as 
I have desci'ibed, it may be asked why the Americans have abolished slavery in 
the north of the Union, why they maintain it in the south, and why they aggra- 
vate its hardships there ? The answer is easily given. It is not for the good of 
the negroes but for that of the whites that measures are taken to abolish slavery 
in the United States." 

There remains to be combatted yet another forcible objection 
urged by the opponents of emancipation. The slaves, say 
they, yielding to their natural indolence, will refuse to labor in 
a state of freedom. "When to this is replied, that the blacks 
must either work or starve, the answer is that they would rob 
and murder rather than toil. This being the general view of 
the case, and it having been established as a fixed fact that the 
whites cannot cultivate the Southern soil without danger to 
life, it is asserted that to emancipate the slaves would be to 
sweep away at a blow all elements of prosperity at the South. 
It does not require much reflection to detect the fallacy of 
these arguments. In the first place, even while conceding 
the natural indolence of the blacks, do they not at the North 
gain a livelihood as honestly and decently on an average as 
the lower class of Irish? And is it not the most arrant folly 
to suppose that they would prefer to incur the penalties of 
crime, death, or imprisonment, rather than continue the labor 
to which they have been accustomed for years? If this 
reasoning be sound, why should we not suppose that the blacks 
would gladly accept the improved condition of free laborers, 
and enable the planters of the South to cultivate their pro- 
ducts as hitherto ? And, in fact, at a cheaper rate, for all 
economists agree that free labor is cheaper than slave labor. 

In a political pamphlet written by G. de Felice, published 



108 Our Unity as a Nation. [Jan., 

in France in 1846, and entitled the " Immediate and Com- 
plete Emancipation of the Slaves," there are such powerful 
and eloquent arguments urged with such honesty and direct- 
ness of purpose, that we cannot forbear quoting some passages 
as confirmation of opinions we have expressed. 

"But the slaves, say you, are not fit for freedom. To eniancipate them all at 
once would be to give them a fatal gift, and in the desire to deliver them too 
rapidly from a bp,d condition, we should plunge them into a worse one. They 
would cease to work because they associate the idea of servitude and shame with 
labor ; aged persons, women encientes, and children would be abandoned ; they 
would live in a state of vagabondage and distrust; neglecting all religious in- 
struction, and retrograding towards barbarism. Let us then first teach the slaves 
to bear the weight of liberty. Let us civilize them by education and labor, 
adopting all such measures as may seem likely to ameliorate their condition, and 
Avlien they are in a fit state for emancipation, we shall be happy to accord it them.' 
* * * * *•* * * » * 

" Let us accept this argument as sound, and try to discover its real merit. 

"The immediate emancipation which we ask for the slaves, is not a lawless and 
limitless emancipation. There will be laws in our colonies, the strength of the 
public, a police, and tribunals. There will exist, in fine, all the means hy which 
a State protects its existence, and its durability. The newly freed slaves can 
therefore always be prevented from committing depredations, or from changing 
the form of the Government. As to the rest, the English islands have never been 
so peaceable as since the day of the emancipation. There has been no attempt 
whatever to interrupt the established order of things ; on the contrary, so much 
have individual crimes diminished everywhere, so great has been the general 
tranquillity, and so perfect the obedience to the laws, that the garrisons have been 
greatly reduced. If any one shall reply to this by reminding me of tlie massa- 
cres of Santo Domingo, I will advise him to read the history. I have no time to 
combat errors founded on the most stupid ignorance. 

" What is meant, tlien, by the allegation that the slaves are not ready for free- 
dom ? Is it to be believed that the slaves from their lack of industry would be 
incapable of providing for the wants of existence ? They perform now almost 
all the labor ; they suffice for the maintenance of the colonists and their own ; 
they know how to manage the spade and the hoe, how to cultivate the soil, 
gather the harvest, and prepare sugar for the market. Many, also, have trades ; 
and when it be necessary they will be able to practice all the mechanical employ- 
ments used in civilized society. 

" ' This is not the question,' you will reply. ' We grant that they know how 
to work, but theji will not work.' 

" ' How then ! Will they not have to earn their bread ? and how can lliey earn 
it without labor T 

" It is not true that the emancipated negroes would take advantage of their 
liberty to reduce their wants to the barest necessities. The experience of the 
English colonies has proved quite the contrar3\ Tlie newly freed slaves have 
not gone to wander in the depths of the woods. Some have continued to work 



1862.] Our Unity as a Nation. 109 

on the plantations ; others have honght little pieces of ground, built houses, and 
founded villages ; thus commencing to form that class of small proprietors which 
constitute everywhere the most moral and useful part of the population. Can 
such a beneficial result be complained of? and since the affranchised slaves be- 
come honest and industrious peasants, will it still be asserted that they are not 

fit for the exercise of liberty ? 

*** ******* 

" Let us suppose the worst. The day after the act of emancipation, there 
would be a floating and uncertain condition of things ; but after the first moments 
of agitation, the mass would subside to their level, only assuming an improved 
condition of spiritual and material order. 

" Believe me, the best education for liberty is liberty itself; there is no prepa- 
ration for it possible ; it is only by its exercise that we become wortliy of it. 
Nothing can be given to the slave that will really civilize him, whatever measures 
we may take for his protection, so long as he remains a slave. It is the possession 
of man by man that must be abolished, abolished entirely by declaring it like the 
slave trade, odious and infamous. Everything short of this that may be done 
will be null and void in the application." 

Olmsted, in his Journey to the Seaboard Slave States, relates 
the following conversation which he had with a slave on this 
subject, which tends singularly to contirni this view of the 
matter. 

" Well, now, would n't you rather live on such a plantation than to be free, 
"William T 

" Oh ! no, sir, I 'd rather be free ! Oh, j'es, sir, I 'd like it better to be free ! 
I would that, master." 

" Why would you ?" 

" Why, you see, master, if I was free — if I was/rec, I 'd have all my time to 
myself. I 'd rather work for myself. I 'd like dat better." 

" But, then, you know, you 'd have to take care of yourself, and you 'd get 
poor." 

" No, sir, I would not get poor, I would get rich ; for you see, master, then I 'd 
work all the time for myself." 

" Suppose all the black people on your plantation, or all the black people in the 
country were made free at once, what do you think would become of them ? — 
what would they all do, do you think ? You do n't suppose there would be much 
sugar raised, do you ?" 

" Why, yes, master, I do. AVhy not, sir '? W^hat would de black people do ? 
Would n't dey hab to work for dar libben 1 and de wite people own all de land — 
war dey goin to work? Dey hire demself right out again, and work all de same 
as before. And den when dey work for demself, dey work harder dan dey do now 
to get more wages — a heap harder, I think so, sir. I would do so, sir. I would 
work for hire. I do u't own any land, I hat to work right away again for 
massa." 

Again, in a work written in France very many years ago by 



110 Our Unity as a Wation. [Jan., 

P. S. Frousard, entitled La Cause des Esclaves, tlie author 
commenting ably on this subject, quotes a remark of M. 
Poivre : 

" Free labor is the foundation of abundance and prosperity in agriculture ; and 
I have never seen this branch of industry flourish save in the countries where the 
riglits of man are recognized. Tlie earth, ■nhich yields with such prodigality to 
free labor, seems to become barren beneath the compulsory toil of slaves. The 
Creator of nature has thus ordained it. He has created man free, and given him 
the earth to cultivate with the sweat of his brow, but in liberty." 

Then, in confirmation of M. Poivre's opinion, M. Frousard 
adds : 

" It seems certain that the solidit}- of the State would be strengthened, and its 
revenue increased, if free labor were employed in the cultivation of the sugar- 
cane and coffee plant in America, as the vine and olive are cultivated in France, 
or the sugar-cane in Cochin-China and Bengal. This is the strongest argument 
that can be adduced in favor of the emancipation of the slaves. When this great 
question shall be examined with a more profoundly analytical attention than I am 
able to give it, let our administrators compare what our colonies do now with 
what they might do under a new order of things, and they will perceive that in 
America as in Europe, personal liberty is the principle of national wealth as well 
as of individual happiness. That without it there can be neither patriotism, nor 
safety, nor energy in labor, nor progress in ai't, nor encouragement for manu- 
facture. 

" A plantation can be cultivated far more profitably- by free labor than by 
slave. A slave, ill-fed, ill-treated, and over-worked, without encouragement in 
his labor, without interest in his own success, must inevitably woi'k slowly, since 
there is nothing to attach him to his master, and he detests his own condition. 
A free man, on the contrary, works for his own sustenance and that of his 
family. He will naturally do all that is possible to obtain the good will of the 
employer who gives him bread, so that he may continue to engage his services. 
The slave, condemned to groan through life beneath the yoke of slavery, and hope- 
less of ever seeing liis condition improved, is consequently devoid of ambition 
and energj'. He will do only what he is obliged to do in order to escape punish- 
ment, and far from desiring to cater to tlie cupidity of his master, he is rejoiced 
whenever he can balk it. The free man is afraid of being discharged if he does 
not give satisfaction, and sustained by the hope of advancement, he is prompted 
to labor by the most powerful motives. He does not need the severe surveillance 
of an overseer to oblige him to do his duty. Do we not notice a great difference 
between daily workmen, and workmen by the job? The latter has no need to 
be watched ; the hope of earning more animates and encourages him; while the 
other, having sold his services for a definite time, works with more indifference 
and though he receives less wages, he becomes in the end less profitable to his 
employer." 

"NYith rei]:;ard to the second point, the impossibility of white 



1862.] ■ Our Unity as a Nation. Ill 

labor at the South, let us be permitted iu the first place to 
quote once more from De Tocqueville. We cannot have the 
opinion of a more eminent and impartial writer. 

" Many of the Americans even assert that within a certain latitude the exer- 
tions which a negro can make without danger are fatal to them; but I do not 
think that this opinion, which is so favorable to the indolence of the inhabitants of 
Southern regions, is confnncd by experience. The Southern parts of the Union 
are not hotter than the South of Italy and Spain, and it may be asked why tlie 
European cannot work as well there as in the two latter countries. If slavery 
has been abolished in Italy and in Spain without causing the destruction of the 
masters, why should not the same thing take place in the Union ?" 

In this view De Tocqueville is confirmed by many who have 
witnessed life at the South and in the tropics. In Cuba, 
where the meridional sun pours down its burnings overpower- 
ing rays, the railroads are laid entirely by Irishmen ; and on 
the plantations the exposure and fatigue of the mayoral (over 
seer) are almost equal to that of the slaves. We may there- 
fore safely conclude, until we have some more convincing 
proof, that there is far more of plausible pretext than of truth 
in these assertions. Were slavery abolished at the South its 
fields would be peopled and re-peopled by the emigrant popu- 
lation that swarms in the large cities of the North ; a popula- 
tion oftentimes festering in misery and want on account of the 
impossibility of obtaining employment ; and who would gladly 
run the imagined risk to better their condition. With the tide 
of emigration that would flow Southward, it might be that ere 
long black labor would be to a great degree superseded ; and 
in this case it would seem a natural consequence that the blacks 
should move on towards the tropical latitudes so much more in 
consonance with their nature and inclinations. Santo Domingo 
and Hayti would doubtless, in the course of time, absorb, 
through the medium of voluntary emigration, the larger portion 
of the negroes on this continent ; and thus at last deliver us 
from the incubus of a black population in our midst. The 
contest, if thus decided, will leave us stronger as a nation 
than ever before, for we shall not only have got rid of our ele- 
ments of discord, but we shall also have vindicated the suprem- 
acy of the Federal over the fractional State Governments. 
The doctrine of State rights, as opposed to the ruling power of 
the whole, has always been dangerous to our greatness and 



112 Our Unity as a Nation. [Jan., 

durability as a nation. It is an idea which debilitates instead of 
strengthening, by substituting petty jealousies for a noble na- 
tional pride. That even in the early days of the Republic this 
spirit was condemned by patriots is evinced by the subjoined 
paragraph of a letter addressed to Washington by James 
Duane : — 

" I once flattered mj'self that tlie dignity of our Government would have borne 
some proportion to the iUustrious achievements by which it was successfully es- 
tablished ; but it is to ba decolored that Federal attachment, and a sense of na- 
tional obligation, continue to give place to vain prejudices in favor of the inde- 
pendence and sovereignty of the individual States." 

Let those who, infected by this false doctrine, doubt our 
right to enforce obedience from the revolted States, read the 
following lines and learn the opinion of the great, wise father 
of our country on this subject : — 

From Governor Lee to Washington in 1794, alluding to the insurrection in the 
western part of Pennsylvania : — 
" My grief for the necessity of pointing the bayonet against the breasts of our 
countrymen is equaled only by my conviction of the wisdom of your decision to 
compel immediate submission to the authority of the laws, and by my own appre- 
hensions of my inadequacy to the trust you have been pleased to honor me with. 
I never expected to see so strange a crisis ; much less to be called to the com- 
mand of an army; on the judicious direction of which may perhaps dejiend our 
national existence. But being ready to give my aid on the awful occasion, I was 
willing to take any part in the measures you might think j^roper to order for 
quelling the insurrection without regard to rank or station." 

" By their fruits ye shall know them," said the holy Naza- 
rene, and this eternal principle is true of all time. The evil 
tree of slavery has produced naught but accursed fruits. A 
system founded on the absolute denial of human rights, and 
sustained by the force and terror of despotism, could only bo 
consistent with itself by destroying patriotism and all sense of 
justice. Those who believe in and uphold this system are like 
those who have sat so long beneath the shade of a poisonous 
tree that their perceptions are obscured. The very atmosphere 
they breathe is infected, and they can no longer distinguish 
right from wrong. In vain shall our noblest sons offer up 
their lives ; in vain shall we each and every one be called on to 
sacriiice our dearest affections, and our most precious interests, 
if, after all, the cause of our difficulties is still to remain. All 
our efforts, all our sufferings, will be but a barren sacrifice. 



1862.] Oiir Unity as a Nation. 113 

The administratioii can of itself make no move in this matter, 
since it is but tlie exponent of the people. It is at present lim- 
ited to following as far as possible the law already laid down 
in the Constitution. Nevertheless, at a time like this, all pre- 
existing laws must, to a certain extent, be set aside ; for the 
laws sufiicient for the protection of the country, in times of 
peace, are not equal to the exigencies of self-protection against 
revolt in. a great struggle for national existence like this. It is 
for the people themselves to ponder calmly, but gravely and 
profoundly, over the great question at issue. It is for them to 
become convinced that if we do not avail ourselves of the op- 
portunity which now presents itself, for annihilating the sole 
barrier to our unity as a people, it would be wiser, more con- 
sistent, and more humane, to cast down our arms, yield up all 
foregone conclusions, give up all faith in what w^e have hitherto 
held dear and sacred, and let the weaves of retrogression sweep 
over us and bear us back to the ideas of a past age. 

We know that these things can only be realized by degrees. 
People are naturally, and to some extent wisely, conservative. 
They doubt as yet the justice of such a course ; they are in- 
credulous as to its necessity, or even its expediency ; but each' 
day as it rolls away, and eacli event as it transpires, Avill bring 
them nearer and nearer to a juster appreciation of the subject. 
Felice, in the pamphlet from which we have before quoted, 
makes the follow^ing remarks with regard to the abolition of 
slavery in the French colonies. They are equally applicable 
to ourselves. 

"There are three questions to be considered. First, the question of duty . 
Are we, or are we not, morally obliged to declare the immediate and complete 
emancipation of the slaves ? Secondly, the question of success. Are we likely 
to carry out the project of immediate emancipation? Finally, the question of 
interest. What will be the result for France and the colonies from the applica- 
tion of this system ? 

" I will venture to assert beforehand, that these three questions are closely 
bound together. The principle of justice is also the principle of strength and 
utility. In other words, only the desire to perform without delay our duty 
towards the slaves, can furnish us the necessary means of success, and protect all 
our true interests. 

" No reflective person will be astonished at the intimate connection whicli we 
find between the useful and the just. By a great law of Providence, that which 



114 Our Unity as a Nation. [Jan., 

is good in itself always promotes the common welfare of all. The transition from 
disorder to order may present some difficulties; but this is of short duration, 
and the beneficial results lasting. Not one single instance can be cited, since the 
beginning of the world, in which a people have experienced a permanent injury 
from being governed in their political system by the eternal laws of morality." 

In conclusion, let us be permitted to distinctly state our 
position, so tliat we may leave no cause for misconstruction. 
We do not urge tlie abolition of tlie slaves as a means of 
carrying on the war successfully. Tliougli we deem slavery an 
outrage of the rights of humanity, and as a great wrong, pro- 
ductive only of evil, yet we would not, in order to abolisli it, 
arm the hand of the semi-barbarous black against onr own 
race. We mean only that as fast as the govenmient which 
represents onr nationality shall triumph ; as fast as the national 
flag shall wave over the revolted States, the property vested in 
slaves, of all those found in arms against the Federal authority, 
shall he confiscated^ and the slaves consequently freed from 
bondage. The property of loyal citizens cannot, of course, be 
interfered with, but as there are probably few such, save in 
the States of Missouri, Kentucky, and Maryland, slavery will 
have received a shock from this general emancipation from 
which it can never recover ; and the border States will find 
themselves under the necessity of voluntarily enfranchising 
their slaves, since they will iiave lost all value in the market. 
Provided, as we all hope and believe, the national arms shall 
triumph, this programme will be simple and practicable ; but 
if tlie people shall not resolve to execute it; if they shall 
shrink before the responsibility of a step requisite for the 
general safety, ours will be but a victory in name which will 
leave us in no better condition than before the commencement 
of the war. 

Americans of the United States who love your country, and 
would fain see its nationality restored, take to your souls the 
conviction and i)onder well upon it, that so long as slavery is 
not swept from among ns, vain will be your licroic sacrifice 
of life ; vain all your generous efforts at reconciliation and re- 
construction of the Union. Only when our proud flag shall 
float ay ox freedom in each and every State, shall we be able to 
realize the aspiration of every patriotic heart — Our Unity as 
A Nation. 



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